I wouldn't call Obama being the first president to win reelection with a smaller number of electoral votes than he earned the first time to an "ass kicking".

There's almost no way any candidate in the rest of my lifetime accomplishes what Obama did in 2008. That does not at all take away from the fact that this was an epic ass kicking. The Republican party flipped TWO states back from 2008, one just barely. This election, particularly the demographics from exit polls show that the party needs to really reevaluate it's approach.

There's almost no way any candidate in the rest of my lifetime accomplishes what Obama did in 2008. That does not at all take away from the fact that this was an epic ass kicking. The Republican party flipped TWO states back from 2008, one just barely. This election, particularly the demographics from exit polls show that the party needs to really reevaluate it's approach.

So did the last one. The new approach they selected was to move even further to the right, express open hostility towards African Americans, Latinos, and women, and devote the majority of their energy towards making up idiotic controversies about birth certificates, FEMA concentration camps, death panels, and so forth.

The second most important tenant of the modern Conservative movement is that the modern Conservative movement is never wrong. It cannot fail; it can only *be* failed. The "reevaluation" you're going to see over the next few days will not be about why the right-wing ideology relentlessly championed by Mitt Romney proved to be so toxic in a general election -- it will come in the form of all the Republican friends and family you have suddenly discovering, for the very first time, that they never supported Romney at all. He lost, they'll say, because he wasn't Conservative enough.

Never underestimate the Republicans' ability to rewrite their own history. Case in point:

Quote from: pr0ner on November 07, 2012, 05:40:31 AM

Quote from: gellar on November 07, 2012, 04:17:04 AM

That was an ass kicking.

I wouldn't call Obama being the first president to win reelection with a smaller number of electoral votes than he earned the first time to an "ass kicking".

That's weird. Back in 2004 when President George W. Bush won reelection with a much, much narrower margin in a single swing state, Ohio, Conservatives declared he the American people had awarded him a mandate, earning him tremendous political capital to spend on privatizing Social Security. Never mind that he hadn't campaigned on that idea at all: it was a massive ass-kicking that proved the mainstream popularity of all Conservative ideals.

Of course, Republicans also refused to acknowledge the nationwide shellacking they took in the 2008 race either. At least they're consistent once in a while.

I think Milquetoast was dead the minute that 47% video came out. It confirmed to enough people what many speculated - that he simply didn't give a shit about you unless you had a big pocketbook. While that may be true of all candidates, he wore that on his sleeve and people got tired of it. That the Republicans couldn't win back the Presidency with the unemployment rate hovering at 8% is very, very telling.

so, status quo? GOP in the house o' reps, Dems in the senate and big house?

Alright, let's keep this nice and orderly. Everyone fleeing to Canada get in the line on the right, all those who want to taste the salty bitterness of the tears off of Eco's face get in the left line.

No Hep, there's no line for that... Put away the bit & bridle.

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I think Milquetoast was dead the minute that 47% video came out. It confirmed to enough people what many speculated - that he simply didn't give a shit about you unless you had a big pocketbook. While that may be true of all candidates, he wore that on his sleeve and people got tired of it. That the Republicans couldn't win back the Presidency with the unemployment rate hovering at 8% is very, very telling.

I agree, but the same thing happened with Bush/Kerry and the unpopularity of Bush. Just shows how fractured this country is.

So does this mean we have 4 more years of a do nothing congress and a president who can't mend the gap?

I think Milquetoast was dead the minute that 47% video came out. It confirmed to enough people what many speculated - that he simply didn't give a shit about you unless you had a big pocketbook. While that may be true of all candidates, he wore that on his sleeve and people got tired of it. That the Republicans couldn't win back the Presidency with the unemployment rate hovering at 8% is very, very telling.

I agree, but the same thing happened with Bush/Kerry and the unpopularity of Bush. Just shows how fractured this country is.

So does this mean we have 4 more years of a do nothing congress and a president who can't mend the gap?

One thing will be different, instead of Republicans goal being "Don't do anything but make Obama a one term President", their goal will be "Don't do anything just because".

I'm not going to say anything bad about Romney after he made such a gracious concession speech. That was a class act. I may disagree with him on almost all fronts, but at least he was a stand up guy when he realized he had lost.

« Last Edit: November 07, 2012, 03:07:59 PM by hepcat »

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I'm not going to say anything bad about Romney after he made such a gracious concession speech. That was a class act. I may disagree with him on almost all fronts, but at least he was a stand up guy when he realized he had lost.

Let’s fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!Our nation is a once great nation divided!Our country is now in serious and unprecedented trouble…like never before.The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.

- tweets from last night

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I would hope that one consequence of this election would be that the insular bubble of right-wing media got popped a bit, and that there was some accountability for how overwhelmingly incorrect they were in their predictions and outlook. I wish consumers who relied exclusively on it would realize that they had been being fed what they wanted to hear rather than what was really happening, and that math kind of works. The polls were right. No unskewing necessary. Maybe the math is also right on things like climate change. Just maybe.

Anybody watch the Karl Rove meltdown last night after Fox called it for Obama? Comedy GOLD

Please god tell me you have a link for that. I did catch Tucker Carlson desperately trying to blame the outcome on the White House making abortion an issue (This was around 9pm eastern, well before it was called). It was laughable.

This morning Fox Radio's spin was that immigrants are being duped by the Democrats to vote for them and that they should really be voting for Republicans since Republicans serve their interests better. Again completely laughable for everyone but the Fox Bots listening.

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" And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason." Isaac Asimov

I keep hearing the word "fractured" to describe our political and cultural landscape. I think what people are really seeing is the impact of diversity on what used to be that mythical white silent majority. That silent majority doesn't exist anymore...and I think that's what the Romney campaign was referring to when they mentioned they were counting on a wave of faith (rather than looking at the real polling data). Republicans have always banked on that white majority during my lifetime, but it's just not there anymore...at least not outside the deep south, Texas, straight up to the Dakotas, and Arizona. The republican leadership needs to come to grips with this reality, the reality that there's not a hive mind silent majority. Their existing base can't carry elections.

If the republicans want to win in 4 years, they need to think outside their current mishmash of white conservatives, radical white tea party members, and the unfortunate republican leaning moderates that have to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. They need to think big, and consider developing a candidate in the next 2 years that represents the diversity of their country, and not the lack of diversity of their party.

Obviously we disagree on most things Hep, but questioning my hope that Obama/our nation succeed is ridiculous. I do hope he rights the ship. I don't think his policies are the answer, but if in fact they lead to lower unemployment (among other things) and a massive reduction in the debt than I'll be thrilled.

The debt, or the deficit? The latter is sure to fall as an improving economy delivers more tax dollars and costs fewer benefits. And the fiscal cliff will impose some real spending cuts, whether negotiated or automatic from sequestration. Paying down the debt, otoh, would require a budget surplus, and that's not going to be possible in the next four years.

And what "asinine spending" are you referring to? Every president has problems with that, but I'm hard pressed to find where Obama is any worse than Bush ever was. Considering that Bush inherited a surplus, I would say Obama isn't as bad.

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Just remember: once a user figures out gluten noting them they're allowed to make fun of you. - Ceekay speaking in tongues.

The second most important tenant of the modern Conservative movement is that the modern Conservative movement is never wrong. It cannot fail; it can only *be* failed. The "reevaluation" you're going to see over the next few days will not be about why the right-wing ideology relentlessly championed by Mitt Romney proved to be so toxic in a general election -- it will come in the form of all the Republican friends and family you have suddenly discovering, for the very first time, that they never supported Romney at all. He lost, they'll say, because he wasn't Conservative enough.

Rush Limbaugh spent at *least* forty-five minutes making this exact point on his show today. Mitt Romney? Nice guy, good family man, shrewd businessman, but if only he'd been more Conservative, spent more time calling the President a liberal, been less timid in his embrace of Conservative Truth, they could have overthrown Obama's regime of prejudice and hate.

We're four years closer to transforming the country into a tyrannical socialist commune, said Rush, and it could have been reversed if only the Republicans would have engaged in a robust, happy, forthright presentation of Conservatism.

Limbaugh and my local right-wing talk show hosts also spent a good part of the day grousing about how unfair and unrepresentative the electoral college is, as though they weren't describing it as an example of the divine prescience of our founding fathers back when Bush lost the popular vote in 2000.

Quote from: hepcat on November 07, 2012, 03:06:24 PM

I'm not going to say anything bad about Romney after he made such a gracious concession speech. That was a class act. I may disagree with him on almost all fronts, but at least he was a stand up guy when he realized he had lost.

Mitt Romney's very first campaign ad of the general election centered on a clip of Barack Obama saying, "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose." Obama was directly quoting a John McCain staffer back in 2008 in order to rebut the remarks -- a nuance the ad conveniently left out.

Mitt Romney's final campaign ads centered on lies he made up about how Jeep was firing all their American workers and shipping the jobs overseas to China. His claims were thoroughly debunked by the media, Chrysler, GM, and even the Republican governor of Ohio, but he just kept right on trying to scare people that their jobs were already gone.

Quote from: USA Today

"You got folks who work at a Jeep plant who have been calling their employers, worried, asking 'Is it true that our jobs are being shipped to China,'' Obama said at rally at the Franklin County Fairgrounds this morning. "The reason they are making these calls is because Gov. Romney ran an ad that says so. Except it's not true. Everybody knows it's not true. The car company themselves told Gov. Romney to knock it off."

The ad includes images of cars being crushed and a narrator saying Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job." The Romney ad doesn't mention that Chrysler is retaining and expanding its North America Jeep operations, as it weighs breaking into China.

You cannot spend a full year acting like the worst scumbag this side of a Captain Planet villain and then transmute into a class act in a single speech. Integrity doesn't work that way.